Related Resources • Translating Web Sites on the Fly • Translation Software & Services • Genealogy in Your Country

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How many times have you come across a document, Web site, or tombstone inscription in a language which you couldn't readily identify? Translation is tough enough even when you know which language you are dealing with. Computers have come to the rescue, however, and a variety of software programs are available which can identify text written in hundreds of languages. Many of these software programs are free and available online, just feed them as few as five words of text and the software will attempt to identify what language it is written in. Even if they can't come up with an exact match, most language identification programs can identify the character encoding and tell you which languages are similar.

Free Language Identification Programs

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